Hi! We're about to begin the Bitrix24 Partner Marketing Course, starting with Module 1. This Module consists of the following topics: 1.
Why do partners need marketing? Where to start? 2.
My target audience. Who are they? Buyer Persona.
3. Competitive analysis. 4.
Positioning. 5. USP 6.
How to Choose a Marketing Strategy. 7. How to develop a Marketing Strategy.
8. Summary. As always, at the end of the Module, you'll have to take a quick test.
Now, without further ado, let's get started! You might be asking yourself as a Bitrix24 Partner, why do I even need marketing? Well, first of all, if you want to sell something, you've got to find someone who's willing to buy.
And that someone has to somehow find out about your existence as a Bitrix24 Partner. That is why it's crucial for you to actively promote and market your services. Next, you have to stand out from the rest of the SAS solutions on the market and offer something unique, something that solves the client's problems easier, faster and cheaper.
And finally, you have to position your brand and your company. So, potential clients prefer YOU over everyone else. All business growth largely depends on marketing and promotion.
No matter how good you think you are, you've got to let the world know it as well. You find your target audience and keep them satisfied. So, where do you start?
- With these three little steps. Step 1. Decide who your target audience is.
When you're just starting out as a Bitrix 24 Partner, you might have the illusion that anyone can be your client. Well, this is far from the truth. If you're a small to medium business, like most Bitrix24 partners are, you've got to look out for the customer who will allow you to maximize your profits.
Who are these profitable customers? - Customers who are looking to establish long-term business relationships. You don't just want to have clients who purchase a subscription from you once and then split.
You want clients who will keep ordering additional services like implementation, integration, employee training, and so on. Only these long-term clients will give you a solid lifetime value or LTV. Customers whose business you know, and understand well, and have previously worked with.
This allows you to establish contact more easily and address your clients' needs better. So, if you, for example, have some experience working with call centers or web design studios, then you should look for clients in those fields first. Customers who are willing and able to pay for your services.
This will ensure a steady income flow and considerably higher average check. So that's Step 1. Decide what kind of customers you'd like to work with, and they will become your target audience.
Step 2. Differentiate yourself from the competition. Position your brand and your company.
Proper positioning helps your business to develop its own identity. A simple idea or a feature that you become known for, and associated with in the eyes of your clients. In other words, this is the reason why customers should prefer your brand and your company to any other.
Jack Trout, a renowned marketing guru, once said: "Working harder than others rarely leads to success. On the contrary, working smarter than the others does. In other words, success in business is not about destroying competition.
It's more like rising above it. For example, the director of Alkem, our Gold Partner from Argentina, is also a teacher at National Technical University. In his lectures, he often uses Bitrix24 as an example when he explains the principles of digital marketing and client management.
Most of his students are future developers and business owners, which makes it a nice example of professional positioning. Step 3. Leverage your geographical location.
As a vendor, we invest a lot of money in promoting our product Bitrix24 all across the globe. That being said, we can't have expert knowledge and understanding in every local market. This is why it's up to you, our Partners, to take matters into your own hands.
You know the local market. You know the local people. And you have the right expertise.
Use it well. And finally, there's one more step. Let's call it Step 0.
Before you even start doing anything, you need to figure out where you stand as a company, and what resources you have at your disposal. Do spend some time researching facts and data or get an expert opinion on your business. This will help you to answer the following questions, which you may recognize as SWOT analysis.
What are your strengths and weaknesses? What are your key areas of expertise? What are the main characteristics of the market you're about to enter?
Is it growing? And how quickly? What are your opportunities in this market?
What are your competitive advantages? Try to formulate them through the prism of possibilities. Define critical threats such as competition or possible economic downturn, and evaluate various potential risks.
Legal, social, economic and so on. Write down all of your answers and conclusions. Even though this technique does not involve numbers, diagrams, and tons of data, it's more than enough to give you a fairly good picture of where you stand and what your immediate action should be.
They say, chance favors only the prepared minds. This is why you should never underestimate this preparation stage, where you don't actually do anything, but rather collect and process information. The more developed and refined your business strategy is, the easier it will be for you to start a new business and market your services effectively.
Meanwhile, that's it for now. Thanks for watching and see you in the next lesson!
